Emojis in an art museum?

From the Los Angeles Times:

Emojis join Van Gogh and Picasso at Museum of Modern Art
Nearly two decades ago, Shigetaka Kurita was given the task of designing simple pictographs that could replace Japanese words for the growing number of cellphone users communicating with text messages.

Kurita, who was working for the Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo at the time, came up with 176 of them, including oddities such as a rocking horse, two kinds of umbrellas (one open, one closed) and five phases of the moon. He called them emojis.

An estimated 74% of Americans now use emojis every day, nudging the written word to the side in favor of a medium that can succinctly and playfully convey emotions in a society often more adept at texting than talking.

A bit more:

“These 12x12 pixel humble masterpieces of design planted the seeds for the explosive growth of a new visual language,” Paul Galloway, a collection specialist in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

“Shigetaka Kurita’s emoji are powerful manifestations of the capacity of design to alter human behavior,” he added.

Museum officials say emojis are the modern-day answer to an age-old tradition of communicating with pictures.

Part of our culture.